Antony Raju disqualified as MLA

The Kerala Legislative Secretariat on Monday disqualified Left Democratic Front (LDF) legislator and former Transport Minister Antony Raju as an MLA following the Judicial First Class Magistrate Court order last week which found the Thiruvananthapuram MLA guilty of forging and planting material evidence in a decades-old evidence tampering case following a drug seizure case booked in 1990.

As per the Kerala Legislature Secretariat’s notification issued on Monday evening, the disqualification is as per the provisions of the Representation of Peoples Act, 1951 and the relevant Supreme Court decisions. With his disqualification, the Thiruvananthapuram Assembly constituency will not have an MLA, but byelection will not be held as the Assembly elections are set to take place in a few months. Mr. Raju is currently a leader of the Janadhipathya Kerala Congress, a ruling LDF ally.